Effect of dental correction on voluntary hay intake, apparent digestibility of feed and faecal particle size in horse.
Authors: Zwirglmaier S, Remler H-P, Senckenberg E, Fritz J, Stelzer P, Kienzle E
Journal: Journal of animal physiology and animal nutrition
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Dental Correction and Feed Digestibility in Horses Mild to moderate dental abnormalities are commonplace in horses, yet their practical impact on feeding efficiency remains poorly characterised; Zwirglmaier and colleagues investigated whether correcting such findings would influence voluntary feed intake, nutrient digestibility and faecal particle size in nine adult Warmbloods. Using a within-subject design with 3-day faecal collections before and after dental treatment, the researchers maintained constant forage and concentrate rations whilst measuring digestibility coefficients and voluntary hay consumption. Whilst voluntary hay intake remained unchanged (11–22 g DM/kg bodyweight daily), apparent digestibility of energy, dry matter and crude fibre improved significantly post-correction (energy digestibility increasing from 46.8% to 51.5%), with greater improvements observed in horses consuming larger concentrate quantities. Notably, faecal particle size showed no change following dental correction, and the magnitude of digestibility improvement bore no relationship to the severity or type of dental pathology identified. For practitioners, these findings suggest that dental work on asymptomatic horses may enhance overall nutrient extraction—particularly important for animals receiving grain-based diets—without necessarily altering mastication mechanics or intake patterns, though horses requiring dental intervention typically show clinical signs and this cohort's mild presentation limits extrapolation to symptomatic cases.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Correcting mild to moderate dental problems improves feed digestibility, particularly in horses receiving grain supplementation, which may enhance nutrient uptake without requiring increased feed intake
- •Dental correction does not influence eating behavior or feed consumption in horses with mild to moderate dental findings, suggesting horses may compensate for poor dentition functionally
- •The lack of correlation between dental severity and digestibility improvement suggests dental correction benefits all affected horses similarly, supporting routine dental maintenance for apparently asymptomatic animals
Key Findings
- •Voluntary hay intake did not change after dental correction (range 11-22 g DM/kg BW/day)
- •Apparent digestibility of energy increased significantly from 46.8±7.4% to 51.5±8.5% after dental correction
- •Digestibility improvement was more pronounced in horses consuming larger amounts of concentrate
- •Dental correction had no effect on faecal particle size